Morphological, mitochondrial DNA and allozyme evolution in representative amphibians and reptiles inhabiting each side of the Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar is an ineffective palaeogeographic barrier for some flightless darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Pimelia)

The geographic distribution of a species is shaped by its biology and by environmental and palaeogeographic factors that interact at different spatial-temporal scales, which leads to distributions and diversification patterns observed between and within lineages. The darkling beetle genus Pimelia has been diversifying for more than 31.2 Mya showing different colonization patterns after the opening of the Gibraltar Strait 5 Mya. Three of the 14 subgenera of Pimelia have populations on both sides of the Strait. Through extensive sampling and the analysis of three molecular markers, we determine levels of intra- and interspecific genetic variation, identify evolutionary lineages in subgenera, estimate their temporal origin and distribution ranges and discuss the historical basis for the geographic and diversification patterns of Pimelia around the Strait. This single geographical feature acted both as a barrier and as a dispersal route for different Pimelia species. The Strait has represented a strong barrier for the subgenus Magrebmelia since the Middle Miocene. However, the subgenera Amblyptera and Amblypteraca share repetitive signatures of post-Messinian colonization across the Strait, possibly driven by stochastic or ‘catastrophic’ events such as tsunamis. Our demographic analyses support Wallace’s hypothesis on insect dispersal stochasticity. Some taxonomic changes, including the designation of a lectotype for Pimelia maura, are also proposed.

An odyssey out of Africa: an integrative review of past and present invasions by the Mediterranean tree frog (Hyla meridionalis)

An illustration of the human footprint on biodiversity are the faunal movements that have accompanied commercial and cultural exchanges between civilizations throughout history. In this article, we provide an integrative review of biogeographical and archaeological knowledge to understand these processes for the Mediterranean tree frog (Hyla meridionalis), an African species that has reached several regions of south-western Europe and associated islands. By re-analysing molecular (multilocus mitochondrial and genome-wide markers) and bioclimatic (ecological niche modelling) data, we give a comprehensive picture of the genetic diversity, structure and environmental suitability of H. meridionalis across its natural and exotic ranges, which in turn offer specific clues to the putative routes of colonization and associated events. Long-term monitoring efforts suggest northwards shifts of local range margins, potentially due to global warming, and we further demonstrate that this species is the most frequent amphibian to travel via the food supply chain in Western Europe. High dispersal ability, ecological tolerance and proximity to human settlements have made H. meridionalis a recurrent witness to the complexity and diversity of the civilizations that ruled the Western Mediterranean.

Seven at one blow: the origin of major lineages of the viviparous Lycian salamanders (Lyciasalamandra Veith and Steinfartz, 2004) was triggered by a single paleo-historic event

The number of tectonic and climatic events that are used to explain speciation processes in the eastern Mediterranean region is low compared to the western Mediterranean. Among them, the emergence of the mid-Aegean trench and the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) often concurred with speciation time estimates that were inferred from molecular data. We here present a dated molecular phylogeny of Lyciasalamandra from Turkey and Greece based on ca. 4500 bp of the mitochondrial genome (3000 bp of three nuclear genes appeared to be completely inconclusive due to their extremely low degree of variation among taxa). Seven major lineages emerged simultaneously from a basal hard polytomy. A scenario that dates this polytomy to 12.3 and 10.2 million years ago, around the final emergence of the mid-Aegean trench, appears to be most plausible. The MSC can be made responsible for first intraspecific divergence events within L. luschani, L. fazilae and L. flavimembris. Further diversification can be explained by Pliocene and Pleistocene glaciations. Based on levels of molecular differentiation we suggest the recently described species L. arikani, L. irfani and L. yehudahi to be treated as subspecies of L. billae.